lidar

[lahy-dahr]

noun Electronics, Optics.

a device similar to radar in principle and operation but using infrared laser light instead of radio waves and capable of detecting particles, distant objects, and varying physical conditions in the atmosphere.

Origin of lidar

1960–65; li(ght¹) + (ra)dar

Also called laser radar.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

There are many other important active sensor classes, three of which are active acoustics, lidar and magnetic anomaly detectors.
Shock and Awe
Harlan K. Ullman
Lidar detects shape directly and shape fluctuations such as vibration and motion and has proven very hard to spoof.
Shock and Awe
Harlan K. Ullman
Islamabad is the starting-point for both the Lidar valley and Martand, and here the house-boat may be left.
Kashmir
Sir Francis Edward Younghusband
A favourite side-valley is the Lidar, for which the road takes off from the main valley at Bijbehara.
Kashmir
Sir Francis Edward Younghusband
And so, in marches of about ten miles a day, we came to Pahlgam on the banks of the dancing Lidar.
The Ninth Vibration And Other Stories
L. Adams Beck

lidar in Science

[lī′där]

A method of detecting distant objects and determining their position, velocity, or other characteristics by analysis of pulsed laser light reflected from their surfaces. Lidar operates on the same principles as radar and sonar.
The equipment used in such detection. See also Doppler effect radar sonar.